Chicken-Fried Steak with Sausage Gravy

This dish is emblematic of great home-style Southern cooking. Some say its origins are in Europe, where wiener schnitzel was invented, and there are some similarities. The connection ends, though, with the country-style sausage gravy with which we smother our pan-fried cutlets. Europeans serve their version with a humble (and lean) wedge of lemon. I retained the gravy but lightened it up dramatically—and instead of pan-frying the cutlets in bacon fat as they do in some parts of the South, I chose to bread and bake them.

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Preparation

Preheat the oven to 450˚F. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet lined with foil, and set it aside.

Put the flour in a shallow dish. Put the panko in another shallow dish. In a medium bowl, whip the egg whites until they are very foamy but not quite holding peaks. Dredge the steaks in the flour, shaking off any excess. Dip them in the egg whites to coat. Then dredge the steaks in the panko, coating them evenly.

Place the steaks on the wire rack and spray them with cooking spray. Season the steaks with salt and pepper to taste, and roast until they are golden brown and crispy, 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick saute pan over high heat. When the pan is hot, add the sausage and stir it to break it up. Cook the sausage until it is just done about 4 minutes.

While the sausage is cooking, whisk the chicken broth into the cornstarch in a small bowl.

Add the cornstarch mixture to the sausage and bring it to a simmer. When the gravy has thickened slightly (after about 2 minutes), remove the pan from the heat.

Stir the yogurt into the gravy. Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the hot gravy over the steaks, and serve immediately.

Hailed as the "Leading Chef of his Generation" by Gourmet magazine, Rocco DiSpirito received the James Beard Award for his first cookbook, Flavor. He went on to author Rocco's Italian-American (2004), Rocco's Five Minute Flavor (2005), Rocco's Real-Life Recipes (2007), and Rocco Gets Real (2009). DiSpirito also starred in the Food Network series Melting Pot, the NBC hit reality series The Restaurant, and the A&E series Rocco Gets Real.

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Recent Reviews

As written, the recipe is low on seasoning, but high on technique, hence my 3 instead of 4. I am a big fan of Wiener Schnitzel (pork) and Chicken Fried Steak (beef), so I used a pork tenderloin tip roast instead of the beef and sliced it into cutlets, then pounded it and proceeded with the breading and oven frying technique as written, with excellent results. I added a lot of typical Texas chicken fried steak seasonings to the whole wheat flour coating -- paprika, thyme, a little sage, cumin, mild chili powder, salt, pepper. I felt I was in the flavor realm by deviating from Rocco's list of ingredients since it is often made in Texas with a dry rub on the meat before breading. I did the pan gravy as written; it was good and the texture was quite nice. A die-hard traditional CFS fan would object that the sauce had more tang than creaminess. Suited us just fine. I used a meat thermometer to make sure the pork was cooked just right. The results were juicy and the pork texture was steak-like, unlike the cheap, chewy beef cuts usually used for CFS. The sauce got as close to the real thing as I could hope for in a low fat version. I served it with oven roasted okra and a plain baked sweet potato for a very satisfying, down-home meal.

lovestoputter from Texas /

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My husband loved this
Didn't have yogurt on hand so used milk
The gravy turned out well